The theoretical developments in archaeology have influenced the
nature of cultural inferences that can be achieved by studying material
culture. Since the fifties of last century the aims of archaeology were
beyond identifying the cultural-histori
cal context of material culture.
Instead the focus was inferring cultural aspects from artifacts and testing
assumptions on material culture. To reach such a research end, the
relationships between human behavior and material culture should be
more identified. Moreover, the evaluation of archaeological assumptions
based on material foundation ought to be measured in a context where
both human behavior and material culture can be directly observed.
Ethnoarchaeological studies, therefore, have been developed to clearly
identify human-material relationships and to testify the archaeological
assumption where behaviors can be directly observed and to identify the
factors that can affect these behaviors and their material correlates.
Despite the fact that ethnoarchaeology has been intensively practiced in
most parts of the world, less studies have been carried out in the Levant.
Hence, this paper aims at presenting the nature and conceptualization of
ethnoarchaeology, the main topics that have been studied in this part of
the world and how to use such studies for archaeological reasoning.
Moreover, it aims to suggest further research aspects that can be studied
and how to use such studies with archaeological and historical sources to
conceptualize the past in the Levant from inside.